


Intermezzo

by catadamon



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Alchera, Dorks in Love, F/M, N7 Day, One Shot Collection, Post-Horizon (Mass Effect)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-07
Updated: 2018-11-07
Packaged: 2019-08-20 00:27:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16545260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catadamon/pseuds/catadamon
Summary: For N7 Day 2018. A collection of non-linear oneshots.





	1. Selfish

**Author's Note:**

> **Intermezzo** _noun_ in·ter·mez·zo - plural intermezzi or intermezzos  
>  _definition_ : A composition which fits between other musical or dramatic entities, such as acts of a play or movements of a larger musical work. A usually brief interlude or diversion.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Pragia.

Garrus means it as a joke, when he asks. It's supposed to be a continuation of their usual banter. "So," he says, sipping his kava as he gives her a knowing look. "When are we going to go on your field trip?"

They had just come from Pragia, and while blowing up a Cerberus facility was a bit cathartic for all of them, it was important to get some R&R before the Illusive Man sent them on a wild varren chase somewhere else out in the Terminius system. After getting out of their armor, Shepard invited Garrus to eat with her. They'd seen too many messed up things down in Pragia, hell, since he joined this damn mission, so any chance he could take to get his and especially _her_ mind off things, he wasn't going to pass up. 

Shepard blinks at him. For a moment, he's taken in her dark brown eyes, but manages to push that urge down for now. They had discussed _reach_ and _flexibility_ , but that didn't mean that he was going to broadcast to the entire crew about his small (albeit growing) infatuation with the squishy human in front of him. "Pretty sure you're on the field trip to end all field trips, Vakarian. The Omega-4 relay ringing any bells?"

Garrus shakes his head. "No, I mean—" He shifts in his seat, not letting that smirk of hers effect him. "Shepard, you're helping everyone on the team finish up any... business we might have before we head to the relay." 

She frowns at him then, and he knows that she's thinking about Sidonis, sniper rifles, and the big fight they had after they got back on the ship. 

After sulking back from the Citadel to the Normandy, Garrus had said some... unkind things to Shepard. Things he now regrets. It isn't that he's completely forgiven her for getting in his way, but he at least understands her reasoning now. After seeing Zaeed holding a grudge for twenty years, and how it the need for revenge completely blinded him, he knows what Shepard saw that day on the Citadel and why she didn't let him take the shot.

And he still isn't sure how to ask forgiveness for the stupid things he said afterward.

So he handles the situation in a mature and sensible way— he twitches his mandibles and looks down at his kava. "We all appreciate what you're doing," he says in a quick burst of breath. Complete maturity and suaveness. "But I couldn't help but wonder what your unfinished business is."

"You mean, besides the Collectors and the Reapers," she says with a tilt of her head. 

His uninjured mandible twitches again. "Besides the obvious, yes. If we don't finish the Collectors and Reapers, the rest of the damn galaxy is going to have a bit of a problem. Not quite on the level of repairing the broken relationship of a father and son, or helping a sister get to safety—"

"Or helping a friend see a different path?" she offers as she bites her bottom lip. 

His subharmonics go a little haywire as he leans forward a bit. "Or helping incredibly handsome friends from making a mistake, yes."

Shepard lets out a soft laugh and shakes her head. She cradles the coffee mug between her hands. His visor readings show that her heart-rate has elevated, and he can only hope its not because he made her nervous. Letting out a huff, she looks up at him then, smirking. "Pretty sure that's not what I said, Vakarian."

"Hmmm," he hums, his mandibles flicking outward in amusement. "Must be something lost in the translation program then."

"Uh-huh," she says, taking a deep drink from her coffee. 

"But seriously, Shepard— you have to have some unfinished business you want done before we go into that relay."

She tilts her head to the side in thought. "Maybe there is."

"Oh?" Garrus perks up, bringing his mandibles in close to his face. 

"But," she says, hesitation in her voice. She shakes her head and waves him off. "It's nothing."

"It's clearly not," Garrus says, leaning in close to her. 

He stares at her hands around the coffee mug, wanting to reach out and take one of them. Would she pull away? Would she change her mind about what they had... previously discussed? He looks up to her face instead, and nearly misses the flash of sadness on her features. She smiles for him. It's the smile she gives to Anderson when she doesn't want him to know anything is wrong. Garrus knows it's fake, and _she knows_ he knows it's fake, but she does it anyway. 

"Making sure everyone is in the right mindset for the final approach is what's more important," she says finally. She reaches one of her hands out to grab his, like she read his damn mind.

Even now, she's the brave one, she's the bold one. He's the one trailing behind, just trying to keep up. He squeezes her hand, and just wants to live in this moment of closeness forever. Her touch gives him the boost of bravery to say, "I'm pretty sure your mindset is the priority of everyone on this ship, Shepard. I know it's one of mine."

A ghost of a smile appears on her lips then, as she tucks a stay strand of hair behind her ear. "I'll think about it, okay?" she says.

Garrus' grip tightens on her hand. "Good. It's okay to be selfish once and a while."

She grins at him fully now, showing her alien teeth. And for a second, Garrus is pretty sure he loves her. And he isn't sure when that started exactly. After Sidonis? Before Archangel even? Had it took this long for him to realize it? 

"What do you think I'm doing right now, Vakarian?" She says, rubbing her thumb across his talons. 

He makes a surprised noise. "Right. Well. You'll get no complaints from me. You should be selfish more often then."

"I'll take that under advisement."

* * *

The next morning, Joker gives him a wake-up call that jolts him awake. "Garrus! You up?"

With a groan, Garrus slowly pushes himself up from his cot. "I am now Joker, thanks. I'm only sleeping around highly sensitive equipment that could potentially blow us all to hell if I pressed the wrong button. But sure, scare me awake. We might not die."

"Forget the banter. This is important, Garrus."

It feels as though the entire Normandy crashes on top of him. "What is it?" He breathes. "Did something happen?" He pushes himself to standing, scrambling to get his legs out of the blanket. 

EDI's voice takes over the comm. "We are currently orbiting the planet Alchera."

"Alchera? But that's—" Garrus is already heading through the mess, towards the elevator. He's not sure if he should go to CIC to ask Shepard why the hell they're at Alchera, or to go straight to the armory to grab his gear, because he already knows why, but wants so desperately to be wrong. 

"Shepard's already top-side," Joker replies. "She left as soon as she was geared up. She took the shuttle down alone and has been down there for at least an hour now."

" _An hour?_ " Garrus exclaims, and he knows his voice isn't calm or collected, there was no way it could be after news like that. He should be more concerned with how his tone sounds to Joker, and, no doubt, what rumors he could be creating just in that moment— but Joker called him for a reason, and they both knew why. "And you're just waking me up now?" The elevator doors swoosh open for him, and Garrus angrily taps the button for deck two with his talon. 

"Shep said she wanted to go it alone," Joker says, his voice straining. Joker was the only other person who feels the grief and guilt of Alchera as much as Garrus does. If Joker had left the cockpit when ordered, if Garrus had been there— two years of that gaping open wound festering inside of them. Joker left the Alliance to try to make amends, Garrus became Archangel to forget. 

Everyone deals with grief in different ways.

Garrus' mandibles flare out in frustration. It pulls on his injury, and somewhere in the back of his mind, the pain registers, but he ignores it for now. Like he always does. "And you just let her?" he snipes back, pounding a fist into the wall of the elevator. The echoing _boom_ is satisfying to his ears. 

" _You_ try to tell the Commander no, and see if she doesn't flay you alive! And besides, she threatened to give EDI complete control of the ship if I alerted anyone. What was I supposed to do? She said that this was something she _had_ to do but, shit, Garrus. I'm getting worried. She should be back by now. EDI's probes report that old Normandy is still down there in pieces." 

Garrus feels his shoulders weigh down as he lets out a long breath. " _Shit_."

The doors to the elevator finally open, and Chambers is already waiting for him at her station, hands up defensively. Garrus gives her a look. If she thinks one tiny human is going to stop him from going down there with Shepard, she is a damn fool. "Garrus, she needed this closure. You need to let her have this."

"She can have all the closure she wants. Hell, I'll even set up a pre-fab down there and we can watch the moon rise and never set until everything is tightly closed." Garrus pushes past Chambers, heading towards the armory. "But I'll be damned if she's going to do it alone."

"But—" Chambers squeaks as she grabs his arm. 

Garrus just looks at Chambers, and then back down to her hand on his arm. She had to be kidding. "She died out here. Do you get that? Died. Alone. Floating in space right above this damned dead planet. And now she's down there alone. Again."

She intently stares him in the eyes. "But she's going to come back."

His mandibles press tight against this face. "That's what I thought last time too."

* * *

As Garrus pulls on the last piece of his armor, EDI's voice chimes in over the ship intercom. "Shuttle incoming."

Furious words flow from Garrus' mouth as he seals the last clasp of his chest armor, and storms out of the armory and straight back towards the elevator. Chambers, once again tries to stop him, but he's closed the elevator doors before she can do anything. He slams the button for level five before Chambers can override the doors.

Garrus isn't exactly sure what he's going to say to Shepard once she reaches the shuttle bay. That is, after he shakes her and tells her not to do something so stupid again— not that she'll ever listen to him, but maybe if he harps on her enough to stop doing such foolish things, she might someday actually listen to him. _Maybe._

By the time he gets there, the shuttle has already docked and gone through the decontamination process. He's there when the Kodiak's doors lift open. One of her hands are in a tight fist at her side, chains hanging from it. 

In the other hand is her old helmet, left to the elements of space for two years. 

Garrus feels his heart slow almost to a halt, as his throat gets very tight. He watches her intently as she carefully places the cracked, ruined helmet on the near-by worktable, followed by the collection of dogtags, carefully thumbing through each one as she lays them down, one by one. He counts along as she puts them all down. Twenty dead.

He stares at Shepard's broken helmet. _Twenty-one._

In that moment, he's very thankful he's the only Turrian on-board, because his subharmonics would tell a tale of loss and of grief. The angry words that'd been fuming in his brain vanish at the sight of her face as she takes off her helmet.

Garrus takes large strides to make it over to her as his helmet falls to the floor, forgotten. He's not sure if he should hug her— not sure if that would be okay with her or not. While he hesitates, she leans into him, resting her head against his chest. There is no more hesitation. His arms come around her, and Garrus pulls her in close. They stand like that, intertwined together, for several deep breaths. Garrus worries that if he pulls away, Shepard will vanish from his life, from the galaxy, one more time— and that is not something he is willing to allow. 

Finally, she pulls back from him, and Garrus, hesitantly, loosens his grip around her. "I thought you'd be mad," she says, looking down at the floor. 

"I am," Garrus says flatly. "Pretty furious, in fact. You didn't have to go down there on your own. I could've come with you."

"I was going to ask you." She shakes her head and continues to look at the floor, the shuttle, anywhere but his face. "But then I thought hard about what you said yesterday. So I did something selfish."

His grip on her shoulders tightens. "That was not what I meant, and you know it."

Finally, Shepard looks up, meeting his eyes. "Garrus, you weren't there when it happened—" His gloves dig into her suit so hard that he knows if he wasn't wearing them, the talons would have scratched lines into the paint. "—And I know what that guilt did to you. I saw it with my own eyes. Seeing the Normandy like that, to be reminded what happened—" her voice cracks.

"When you died?" he finishes for her. She flinches at the word, and he knows it was probably over the line to say, but it was a reality he had to face every damn day for two years that she's trying to sweep under the rug like it never happened. He says, his mandibles flaring out in challenge. "Shepard—"

"I know you want to be at my six for everything, but some things are best left unseen. I'm sorry I was selfish, but it was what I needed to do, and I wanted to protect you from the pain of seeing the wreckage down there." She pulls him in close, pulling his head down so their foreheads touch, Garrus feels his breath catch. "Can you honestly tell me that you would want to go down there? To see the wreckage after all of this time?"

"No, I wouldn't. But you didn't need to go alone either." Letting out a long breath, Garrus relaxes into her embrace. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he wonders if she knows what this gesture means between Turians. She probably does. She's always one step ahead of him. He lets out a soft laugh then, and nuzzles her forehead in return. "We need to work on your definition of selfish, Shepard."

Her mouth pulls into a slight smirk. "Must be something lost in the translation program."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh boy, my first Mass Effect fic! I resisted for so long, but on my most recent play-through, a bunch of plot bunnies took over my head cannon, and I just could not resist writing them any longer. My plan was to have a bunch of oneshots finished for N7 2018, but as life does, it got busy and in the way. Right now, I have another half written, and another in brainstorming form. As I finish more oneshots for Garrus and Shep, they will be stored here.


	2. Staring

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Horizon.

For his first few days on the SR-2, Garrus finds himself staring a lot. So much of the SR-2 is the same as the old SR-1, but there are things constantly reminding him that its not the same ship. His old haunt in the shuttle bay is gone, and the elevator is in the wrong place. But Doctor Chakwas is in the med bay. He looks in to see her every time he walks by, just to make sure she's still there and this isn't all a stem-induced fever dream of Archangel's as he waits for the mercs to get him back on Omega. 

The CIC is eerily like the old ship, but the display is different, and the officers are wearing Cerberus' white and black, instead of Alliance blue. Joker is still helming the ship giving him a hard time, yet Garrus got lost on his first day, trapped between the armory and Mordin's lab and not sure which way he needed to go. He kept ending up in the meeting room, instead of the CIC. It got to the point that Mordin had to actually step away from his experiments, and walk Garrus out the door leading to the CIC, with a smiling Chambers waving to him. Garrus was pretty sure Mordin only helped Garrus because he kept interrupting Mordin's experiments with going in and out the doors, and not out of the goodness of his Salarian heart.

When Garrus regales Shepard the story of his stupidity later in the mess hall, she laughs along with him, before admitting she'd done the same thing the first day— but didn't have the kind doctor there to show her the way, and instead had to have Jacob give her a disappointed look that the Commander couldn't manage to get around her own ship without getting lost. 

Their banter, it seems, hasn't changed either. They simply pick right back up, as if those two long years never happened. And for Shepard, he supposes they hadn't. To her it'd only been a month or two since he'd shipped off back to the Citadel to try his luck at becoming a Spectre again. 

The more time he spends with her, Garrus quickly realizes that he's not the only one staring. Shepard does a far bit of staring herself. Garrus catches her more than once staring at her reflection in the windows on the shuttle— with the harsh glowing scar cutting through her cheek. But the scar that was tucked in the right side of her mouth that she got during her N7 training is no longer there. She stares into the CIC display, letting the neon illumination from the stars reflect off of her face. The red glowing scar cuts through that too— like there is a tear in the galaxy, and it's center is Shepard herself. She also stares at Garrus quite a bit as well. She stares at the the bandages, eyes lingering on the wounded mandible that still smarts whenever he talks. He can manage to forget the pain— years of Turian military training will get anyone focused on important task and not meager flesh wounds— but she still winces every time he drastically moves it, as if she could empathetically feel the pain. More than once, he runs into Shepard leaning herself on the wall opposite of the mess, staring at where Kaidan's station once was. 

He wonders how long it will take for the both of them to find their bearings again. How long will the ghosts of the SR-1 linger just on the outside of their peripheral vision?

Then Horizon happens. 

And Garrus has to watch the slow-motion crash collision of a relationship that he barely even knew existed. There were rumors on the SR-1, _but there were always rumors_. Kaidan seemed so unaffectionate and detached to everyone on the ship, that Garrus had always assumed that it was just another false one. After all, on the SR-1 it was rare that he even saw Shepard speaking to Kaidan, let alone anything... intimate. The Alliance had regulations about fraternization, sure, but Kaidan and Shepard had rarely interacted off-field. Or at least, so he thought. 

Garrus watches one of his closest friends get her heart ripped out after a very difficult mission, by a jerk who won't even listen to what she's trying to tell him. Garrus tries to back her up, but Shepard motions for him to keep quiet. 

The trip back to the SR-2 is very quiet. Even Mordin, ever the chatterbox, keeps his observations of his successful test to a low whisper. 

Once back on the ship, Garrus doesn't see Shepard for a few days, which is odd in normal circumstances— _worrying_ considering what he had seen between her and Kaidan. Shepard would always stop by, at least once a day, to see the status of the newly installed Thanix or to ask Garrus a question about one of the other upgrades that were upcoming. 

It's only after three days, when Garrus decides to head to the mess during the night cycle, does he actually see Shepard once more. She's staring at her reflection again, this time in the darkened windows of Doctor Chakwas' office. The glow of her cheek cuts through the dimmed lights of the mess hall. 

Garrus slows down as he approaches, also watching Shepard's reflection in the dark glass. Her eyes dart over to him, and then quickly back at her reflection, one of her fingers angrily pressing down on the red, glowing scar. "Chakwas said this would go away on it's own. Said I had to think positive thoughts, and the skin graft would heal itself in no time." She presses her finger against her cheek hard, only making the glow brighter. "I think she might have been full of shit." With a sigh, Shepard finally turns away from her reflection, and gives Garrus a fake smile. "Maybe I should keep it. Seems like your scars are working out for you," she says, nodding to his bandages. 

He tips his head to the side in consideration. "You could. Of course, I'm not super well versed in Krogan courting rituals, but I'd be willing to bet that headbutting comes in there somewhere. And as entertaining as it would be to see you make a Krogan cry, I don't think your brain can take that much of a pounding, cybernetics and all." 

Shepard shrugs. "I mean it'd be a way to test the extent of Miranda's _'improvements.'_ "

"Or you could just give it a little time, Shepard. Deep wounds take a longer time to heal." 

"Why do I get the feeling you're _not_ talking the scar?"

Garrus falters for a moment. His mandibles nervously flare out as he tries to grapple with what to say next. Should he be the one to even breach the subject of Kaidan with her? After all, it was none of his business who she was involved with. Somewhere in the back of Garrus' mind, he knew that he cared for her more than a normal friend would. If he was honest with himself, he may have even been able to admit that it was love. But it was only after Shepard died, and what the hell was he going to do with that information, except linger on the wounds left there by her death. It was why he went to Omega— to get his mind off of such things, and to give him something else to focus on. Never mind that he'd never have the chance to tell her. 

Except Shepard is alive, standing in front of him now, and he can tell that she's hurting, and his confusion on his feelings is the last thing she needs in that moment. 

Clearing his throat, he leans towards her. "Can't it be both things?" She lets out an aggravated breath and crosses her arms against her chest, clearly already shutting him down. Putting his hands up in defense, Garrus quickly adds, "Look Shepard, I'm just worried— that's all."

She lets out a sigh as she crosses the hall into the kitchen. Garrus follows her, making sure to give her some space. "If we're going to talk about Horizon, then I'm going to need something harder than coffee," she says, digging into one of Gardner's cabinets. "And it looks like Gardner's secret whiskey store has been tapped out, so-" she pulls the bag of coffee grounds, marked in large letters _SHEPARD_ — Gardner had given her the bag in thanks for the special food requisitions Shepard managed to get for him.

"We don't have to talk about Horizon," Garrus says, watching her start prepping a pot of coffee. "But you _should_ talk to _someone_ about it."

She raises an eyebrow at him. "And it might as well be you?"

"I'm the only one on the ship who has any context, save for Joker— and I really doubt you want to talk to him about anything that vaguely needs to be taken seriously."

Shepard turns the coffee pot on before giving Garrus an incredulous look. "I could talk to Doctor Chakwas about it. She knows Kaidan quite well."

Humming in agreement, Garrus shakes his head. "But you're not going to, because if you were, you would have already talked to her about it—" she opens her mouth to protest, but Garrus cuts her off, "And if you had already talked to her about it, you wouldn't be down here in the middle of the night staring at your glowing scar, now would you?"

She looks down at the floor while the coffee pot starts to percolate. "I was just thinking about Project Lazarus," she says after a long silence, barely audible. 

"Oh," he says, and instantly feels helpless.

"Garrus—" She looks up, meeting her eyes with his. "How do I know I'm the real me? What if I'm just some souped up version of the Shepard VI Mouse was selling that Cerberus managed to interface into a sophisticated android?"

"You think you're an android?" Garrus repeats, not believing what he's hearing. 

"It would explain the glow," she says gesturing to her cheek. 

Shaking his head, Garrus moves in closer to her. He wants to reach out to her, lean her head on his shoulder, _anything_ to get the look of pure helplessness off her face in that moment. He's seen Shepard in a lot of tough situations, but never had she looked this vulnerable, and Garrus hates it. "No, you're definitely you, Shepard. If you weren't, I wouldn't have missed that concussive shot back on Omega. We wouldn't even be here having this conversation, because we both would be dead."

She snorts, making a face at him. "Cheerful."

"One of my many virtues," he said, giving a nonchalant shrug. "Anyway, the Shepard VI was buggy as all hell, and couldn't tell the weather properly, much less fool me into thinking it was the real you, so it's safe to say that you aren't a VI either. Why would you even think that?"

"Because they've been testing on god knows what for god knows how long. Because it's easier to believe than them completely reviving me from being spaced. Because they have the means to make capable AI. Take your pick." Her body slumps every so slightly as she lets out a long sigh. "I don't know. Maybe Kaidan was right. Maybe I have betrayed everything we believed in."

"The only thing he was right about was when he said he had to leave," Garrus says, his mandibles flickering in frustration. Spirits, how could one of the strongest people he knew let some petty words get under her skin so easily? Was it because Kaidan was the one who said them? "Because if he hadn't, I'm not a hundred percent sure he would have left without a few holes in choice locations in his armor. When have you ever betrayed the Alliance? You went straight to Anderson once you were back on your feet, and what— _yet again_ the Alliance can't officially help you. The Council won't help you, even there the ones that got you killed in the first damn place. _I get it_ , Shepard. And even though you made the deal with the devil, so to speak, it was clear to me from day one on this ship that it was _your_ ship, not Cerberus'."

"Thanks, I guess." Shepard gives him a side-long glance. "So tell me, since when does Archangel go about shooting decorated Alliance officers?"

"Since said decorated Alliance officers decided it was okay to take his frustrations out on his best friend." Thinking about what Kaidan said down there still made Garrus' blood boil. The only thing Kaidan was concerned about was _his_ pain, _his_ grief. And the moment Shepard uttered the word ' _Cerberus_ ' he turned on her like an angry klixen. Shepard had no choice that Cerberus was the one who brought her back to life, who gave her a ship and the means to go after the Collectors. The Alliance hadn't done a damn thing, except for Anderson offering whatever he could— _under_ the table, of course. "Kaidan could have _at least_ had the decency to at least try and listen to what you were telling him."

"He was angry," she says with a shrug. "And I can't really blame him about that. I wanted to reach out to him as soon as I woke up, but he was on assignment, his mission was classified. Not even the Illusive Man knew where he was. How was I supposed to—"

Garrus hums in thought. "I once heard a wise woman say, ' _You're letting how you feel about your history get the way of the facts_.' Kaidan knew all of that, and yet he still decided to take it all out on you for no reason, other than his hurt feelings. So, yes, I can blame him just a little about it, Shepard. _You_ should be the one angry about this, not me."

"What's anger going to get me? I'm upset, frustrated, but—" she says, tilting her head at him. With a forlorn sigh, she adds, "Kaidan's gone. I doubt he's coming back."

For a moment, a heavy silence hangs between them. Garrus can feel his mandibles twitching as he tries to put his thoughts together in a cohesive way. After a false start, Garrus, clears his throat. "It's his loss, you know. For tossing aside someone as amazing as you."

She blinks. "You think I'm amazing?"

"You're the only person I'm willing to follow into hell for in the whole damn galaxy, so yeah—" he says, embarrassment creeping into his sub-harmonics. He can't read the look on her face. If only she was a damn Turian, because he could then at least hear her sub-harmonics and have some indication of what she was thinking. Panicking ever-so-slightly, Garrus begins to ramble. "I mean, I'm pretty sure I'm not the _only_ one who thinks you're amazing, Shepard. I could have EDI take a poll of the crew. Pretty sure most of them would agree with me. Unless, I shouldn't think you're amazing? Because I—"

"Shut up, Garrus," she says, but she's smiling at him now. "You're rambling."

"Shutting up, Commander," he replies, his mandibles flaring into a smile. " _See?_ Do you think a VI would be able to tell me that? I don't think so, Shepard. You're one hundred percent you, no question." 

She breaks eye contact with him then, turning to the now ready coffee pot and she pours herself a cup. Garrus watches her as her lips pull into a small smile. "Thanks. You know... you're pretty amazing yourself too, Vakarian."

Garrus blinks once. Twice. "I'm sorry, could you repeat that? I need to record it for reference, in case I need it later." He taps on his visor, trying to push down the giddiness flowing through his veins. 

"You're an ass," she says with a laugh, as she gives him a playful shove.

"No, that's not what you said. Pretty sure it was a different word that started with an _a_ sound. Come on, I'll start you off— _amaaa—_ "

She took a deep drink from her mug, but Garrus _definitely_ caught the pink in her cheeks that she was _definitely_ trying to hide.

He couldn't do anything but stare.


End file.
